Cloverleaf (Self-released, 2002)

Finding a good country bar band isn't as easy as it once was. If a club uses a band ¡ even that's a rarity nowadays ¡ it's generally guitar (Strat, not Tele), bass (electric, of course), drums and keyboards. Whether they play hits or new material is almost irrelevant; there just ain't no twang.

Not so with the Lucky Pierres out of Dallas. A fine bar band in their own right, they've captured a stripped down, twangy bar sound in the studio as well. Their third independently produced record puts Michele Pittenger's Patty Loveless-like drawl front and center, yet generously shows off multi-instrumentalist Kim Herriage's work on guitar, steel and mandolin. Much of the Pierres' originals draws on familiar beats and themes, and that could be one of the album's trappings. Fourteen songs may have been a couple cuts too many. Pittenger seems to stay in a comfort zone as she sways on the soft shuffle "Getting Over You" and draws on a Patsy Cline-like theme and beat with "My Temptation."

While she may not be a torchy singer or belt out an all-out rave, neither Pittenger nor the band get down-and-dirty slow or push the tempo much past shuffle. It's their style, which is fine, but with this many cuts on a single album, the pace needs to ebb and flow just a bit more.( E-Mail: Lucky Pierres, Box 227351, Dallas, TX 75222-7351)